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FOREST CONSERVATION NEWS TODAY

West Papua: Rainforest Wilderness Threatened by Massive Dam

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08/16/01

OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY by Forests.org

The six billion dollar Mamberamo dam project in West Papua (western

half of island of New Guinea, occupied by Indonesia) will dam a

mighty river and flood one of the least explored and biologically

most brilliant areas on the Planet, dramatically impacting the area's

35 nomadic tribes. The Guardian article below reports that "every

second the Mamberamo pours more water into the Pacific Ocean than...

...the Niagara Falls. An area larger than England is drained by the

Mamberamo and damming this river could flood up to half of this land.

It is covered with primary rainforest that rivals the biodiversity of

the Amazon. Six species of fish are found only in the Mamberamo river

system."

Construction on the Mamberamo megaproject has already started. The

first stage was completed on the coast in 1999 when a South Korean

firm, PT Kodeco Mamberamo Plywood, opened a sawmill and an oil palm

plantation. Extensive industrial logging of primary rainforests in

the 691,700-hectare concession is already threatening populations of

endangered green turtles and birds of paradise. Land that has been

cleared by PT Kodeco will serve as a site for a major industrial

estate with metal smelting works, sawmills, agribusiness plantations,

and petrochemical processing factories - to be powered by the dam.

g.b.

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Title: Washed away: The damming of the Mamberamo river

in West Papua threatens to flood one of the least explored areas of

the planet and change forever the lives of the nomadic tribes,

reports Eben Kirksey

Source: Copyright 2001 The Guardian (London)

Date: August 1, 2001

Byline: Eben Kirksey

Shortly after the 1997 rainy season an Indonesian government envoy

arrived at the village of Iau, a group of palm-thatched houses along

a remote tributary of the Mamberamo river in West Papua. The envoy's

message was simple: everyone in Iau would have to move into the

surrounding mountains because their land was to be flooded by a huge

dam.

Iau was not yet under water when I visited as the coordinator of a

World Wildlife Fund (WWF) expedition to study some of the region's

biodiversity, but a feeling of dread hung over the village. Over a

meal of roasted sago and bat meat, Iau's village chief, told me: "I

would rather be shot in the head than be resettled." He was referring

to the epic Dollars 6bn Mamberamo project. If this project is ever

completed - it has started already - it will dam the great river

and flood one of the least explored areas on the planet. The impact

on the 35 nomadic tribes who are known to live in the region's

drained by the Mamberamo will be immense.

The headwaters of the Mamberamo form a 15,000 km 2 basin that is

surrounded on all sides by towering mountains. The latest available

topographical maps of West Papua, which is called Irian Jaya by

Indonesians, have large white patches of "incomplete relief data"

over much of the Mamberamo region. It is covered with primary

rainforest that rivals the biodiversity of the Amazon. Six species of

fish are found only in the Mamberamo river system. Every second the

Mamberamo pours more water into the Pacific Ocean than the combined

flows of both the US and Canadian sides of the Niagara Falls. An area

larger than England is drained by the Mamberamo and damming this

river could flood up to half of this land.

The plan is to produce over 10,000 megawatts of electricity - more

than a nuclear power plant. This energy would fuel an immense

industrial estate in the coastal district of Waropen with metal

smelting works, sawmills, agribusiness plantations, and petrochemical

processing factories.

The region is off-limits to foreigners, officially because it

harbours separatists who pose a security threat. In fact, these

travel restrictions have conveniently hidden the tropical wilderness

that is slated for destruction.

As our tiny plane shot through a mountain pass, the tributaries that

feed into the Mamberamo spread out below in a dizzying series of

loops. The Mamberamo is constantly shifting its channel and has

formed hundreds of oxbow lakes. Boundaries between land and water are

blurred as the sun sparkles up through the dense rainforest cover.

We landed on a mission airstrip and found ourselves among the

Kirikiri, one of the nomadic tribes living in the Lakes Plain.

Traditionally, all Kirikiri go bare-chested and wear simple clothes

made from tree bark: men wear loincloths and women wear skirts. After

organising a group of locals and a dugout canoe, we set out on the

week-long journey to Iau. This journey was marvellously disorienting.

Five lazily flowing river channels converged at one point and

without our Kirikiri travelling guides it would have been trial and

error to determine which direction was downstream.

We made frequent stops as the Kirikiri let arrows fly at passing

great white herons, egrets, tree kangaroos, and crocodiles in hopes

of scoring a tasty dinner.

Each Kirikiri family has several houses standing on wooden stilts

made out of tree bark and palm thatch. Settled villages began forming

25 years ago when the first landing strips and mission stations were

built. Many Kirikiri have recently built houses in these villages

which they visit when they buy or trade goods, go to church services,

or attend school. Others have largely ignored the permanent

settlements.

During our canoe journey we slept in a series of Kirikiri houses

along the river. In the middle of the first night the house's palm

thatch began to rustle. I grabbed my torch and slid out from under my

mosquito net to find a cuscus, a terrier-sized marsupial with orange

and white fur, staring at me through the roof with wide eyes. Gazing

out over the river I saw hundreds of flying foxes, one of the largest

bat species in the world, flapping noiselessly across a star-speckled

night sky.

While I was preparing for the expedition, a local government official

had told me a story about the Lake of Women. He said that there was a

lake somewhere in the Mamberamo region where men are forbidden to go.

According to him, the women here reproduce by mating with dogs and if

a baby boy is born he is abandoned in the forest. This story

illustrates, he said, the need to "modernise" the Mamberamo region

with the project.

Iau happened to be within walking distance of the Lake of Women and

we collected fish here as part of our biodiversity survey. Sitting on

the bank, I asked a toothless Kirikiri man about the origin of the

lake's name. He gave a wheezy laugh and told me about a band of

Indonesian crocodile poachers that had been exploring lakes near Iau

20 years ago. Ahead of the poachers, word spread that they were an

unruly bunch. Everyone who was living in a small hamlet on the lake's

edge fled into the forest. An old woman, who was too feeble to walk,

stayed behind and was sitting alone clutching a dog when the poachers

sauntered into the hamlet.

The first stage of the Mamberamo megaproject was completed on the

coast in 1999 when a South Korean firm, PT Kodeco Mamberamo Plywood,

opened a sawmill and an oil palm plantation. Logging by PT Kodeco, in

their 691,700-hectare concession of primary rainforest, is already

threatening populations of endangered green turtles and birds of

paradise, according to Agus Rumansara, Director of WWF-Sahul

Bioregion. The daily capacity of the Kodeco sawmill is currently

limited because it is powered with a petrol-burning generator, but

this will change once the hydroelectric dam is functioning. Land that

has been cleared by PT Kodeco will serve as a site for the rest of

the industrial estate.

On 2 April, this year, West Papua's governor JP Salossa announced

that the Mamberamo megaproject was proceeding with "renewed momentum"

on the back of World Bank and Asian Development Bank funding.

Eben Kirksey is a Marshall scholar at the University of Oxford and

has conducted field research in Central America, Indonesia, and West

Papua. Conservation International, the World Wildlife Fund,

Universitas Cenderawasih, USA Today and the Mamberamo Conservation

Group supported this expedition. Names of ethnic groups and villages

have been changed. For more information see westpapua.org

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